Review: Doctor Who, “Boom” | Season 14, Episodes 3
Steven Moffat pens one of the tensest Who episodes in years
Before we delve into this week’s stellar new episode of Doctor Who, let’s take a moment to appreciate how absolutely wild it is to have an episode written by Steven Moffat under the showrunning tenure of Russell T. Davies in the year of our lord 2024. For all the fandom debate about which showrunner did it better, I’d argue it was actually the Moffat/Davies partnership that produced some of the best episodes of NuWho’s run—from “The Empty Child”/“The Doctor Dances” to “The Girl in the Fireplace,” “Blink,” and “Silence in the Library”/“Forest of the Dead.” And while I’ll need a minute to decide where I’d rank “Boom” among that distinguished list, there’s no doubt it’s one of the most excitingly original episodes of Who we’ve had in a long time.
That starts with a boldly self-contained, real-time premise: The Doctor, standing on a landmine for 33 minutes, trying to think his way out of a situation that could lead to devastating consequences for hundreds of people. Like “Midnight” and “Heaven Sent” before it, “Boom” is an episode that gains its power by ratcheting up the tension inside a small-scale, claustrophobic setting. And after three distinctly goofy episodes to kick off this new era of Who, the life-or-death seriousness of this one hits like a hammer.
Indeed, the first act of “Boom” is mostly just about establishing how the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby handle a crisis. He’s calm, pragmatic, able to crack a joke, but not completely capable of hiding his fears and vulnerabilities. She’s full of questions, brave to the point of being reckless, and empathetic, even when she’s overwhelmed. They’re a natural match, and while I do think the ordering of this season is shortchanging Ruby’s arc a bit (the Beatles episode implied she’d been traveling with the Doctor for months, while “Boom” suggests this is her first time on an alien planet), Millie Gibson and Ncuti Gatwa have such fantastic chemistry together that it’s easy enough to handwave away the details—at least for now.